


in his footsteps

by Serendipity1



Category: Legend of Korra
Genre: Drabble Collection, Family, Father's Day, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-17
Updated: 2013-06-17
Packaged: 2017-12-15 05:39:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/845942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serendipity1/pseuds/Serendipity1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A drabble collection for the four Krew members, their fathers, and the distance between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in his footsteps

**Author's Note:**

> I guess this turned out more upsetting than I'd thought, but as I wrote this I realized that not even Korra has a very close relationship with her dad (he didn't say anything to her when her bending got taken, no interaction between them on the show), and the other three either have dead fathers or a father who tried to kill them, so. It's more of a study on kids who have an unhappy father situation, since not everyone can have a great one.

_**1-Korra** _

  
She doesn't blame her dad anymore, like she did when she was very little, when she was four and five and six and then seven, living in the confines of the White Lotus's compound and practicing bending exercises until her muscles ached and she lay on her bed sobbing, crying for mommy and daddy. They were allowed visits, but they hadn't stayed with her all the time, hadn't been allowed to. She couldn't control herself yet. She still made messes, accidentally burned down furniture. She had to calm down and control herself.

  
When she was very small, she had resented him for not stealing her back, like Kiviuq had from the jaws of the polar dog spirit, like the Fire Lord had stolen the Avatar before her from the prison he'd been chained up in.

  
Sometimes she would close her eyes and remember her parents, when the visits were few during the whale hunting and the coldest parts of winter, she would remember Tonraq'a thick, warm parka and his strong arms and kind eyes, and the way he always looks at her with pride. The stories he tells, all about spirits and heroes and the special ones about the Avatar, all of the ones he can remember, even the ones before Aang.

  
At seven, Master Katara comes to see her, when they tell her she's ready to start mastering waterbending forms, and shortly afterwards they let her parents see her much more, even let them stay for weeks on end. Later she finds out it was Master Katara who had done it, who had raised a fit at those White Lotus men and threatened to take Korra away herself if they hadn't. Something, she thinks, her father should have done.

  
But at the time, she's merely happy he's back. She's happy he can sit there with her and talk about ice-fishing, and that he's allowed to take her on hunting trips now, and that he is there in the middle of the night sometimes when she's crying. But at seven years old, she still remembers that daddies can leave, that they can be told to go away, and that they aren't always there with strong arms and warm hugs. She can't rely on them.

  
_**2- Mako** _   


  
He remembers his dad most sharply on that night before he was killed, the three of them walking down the street, his father clutching a bag of groceries, his mother laughing and talking about- something, he can't even remember what it was. He remembers his father reaching down and ruffling the hair on his head, saying: 'you look cold, kiddo,' and wrapping his scarf around his neck. He remembers how warm it was, how it smelled like his dad- charcoal and cologne and ginger from the candies he was eating, and he remembers feeling safe and secure, his smaller hand wrapped in his dad's larger one. Mako remembers his father's grip being strong, firm, safe. Safe.

  
_**3- Bolin** _   


  
Bolin always was his mother's boy when he was little, helping her around the house, drawing pictures for her, and plucking flowers from other people's windowboxes to bring home for her. He loved his daddy, but he had a preference, and so most of it, when he tries to remember, most of that time when they were- well. He can remember some things about his dad, even if Mako remembers him more. He does remember his father loved to whistle, random snatches of popular songs or even bird imitations he claimed to remember from his life out in the country, before he moved to Republic City. He'd whistle at random, while walking down the street or washing the dishes. His mom would call him 'songbird'.

  
Bolin remembers his dad building a blanket fort for them once and calling it Omashu, pretending to lay siege to it with a bowlful of lychee nuts. He remembers him building little slides for them, using earthbending, so they could slide in the park. His dad, he thinks, might have been a bit silly. That's good, though, it means he got more than earthbending from him.

  
_**4-Asami** _   


  
She's offered the opportunity to visit her father, in his current location. They'd considered him too much of a threat to keep with the other Equalists in their cells, so they'd moved him to another location, given him a small house with everything he needed, and kept him under house arrest. Nothing comes in or out of the house without going through the guards first, and he isn't allowed to build anything. Not even a toaster. She can't imagine how that must feel for her dad, who above all is a brilliant engineer, but she tries not to care.

  
The problem is that she has two sets of memories, and the good set has had all of her life to grow and take root. All her life to fill her thoughts of 'father' with him smiling at her, protecting her, buying her small things just to make her smile, expressing pride in whatever she did...all of those memories to set against the fact that he tried to kill her. The fury in his voice when he said she wasn't worth protecting anymore. How much it hurt to fight him, how it had torn away every foundation in her life. And while all of that is twisting inside her like a knife, she still remembers how he used to tuck her in when she was little, and how he used to let her watch him design new machines, and how he never talked down to her, how he explained everything satomobile until she knew them inside and out.

  
Asami thinks of him at odd moments, in the kitchen when she makes tea, and when she's racing, because every vehicle she's driven has been hand-designed by him.

  
Still, she can't bring herself to visit. She doesn't want to see his hatred, even if it would help remind her what he is now. So instead, she just writes. Sometimes it's angry, frightened, accusatory: 'I can't believe you would do that to me, I can't believe you would try to hurt me,' she never says kill, it is so final, so absolute, 'I can't believe you would turn into someone like the people who took mom away.' And sometimes it's painful, pleading, 'Do you remember when we went to the park together? Do you remember my university plans? Do you remember-' and 'I miss you, I miss the old you, I miss not being scared of you.'

  
Asami wonders if he reads them, or if he leaves them unopened and un-read, or if he simply takes them one by one and feeds them to the flame of his fireplace.


End file.
